Posted by enough!
a resident of Charleston Gardens
on Aug 6, 2014 at 10:44 am

Budget woes my butt. This is the wealthiest county in the country. Sunnyvale and San Jose courts are a mess. I have to go to the courts at least three times a week. Most times when you go to the Sunnyvale court clerks office, there is only one window open because the clerks go on breaks together or are lunching or have something else to do. Waiting on that line can already take 45 minutes. Longer, if there is a court runner in line. Then add all of the people who can't afford an attorney asking a hundred questions, and it takes yet more time.

Downtown is a bit better, but not much. And, the parking situation is miserable. This isn't happening because of budget cuts, this is happening because this county is run by a whole lot of stupid.

Posted by enough!
a resident of Charleston Gardens
on Aug 6, 2014 at 11:05 am

Hmmm, no money in the state budget, but somehow Moonbeam found 42 million dollars to fund the DREAM Act BEFORE the parks accounting error was discovered. More, did you not read Prop 30? That's not just a tax for schools, it's a tax for ANYTHING Sacramento's little heart desires.

Posted by Attitude is everything.
a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Aug 6, 2014 at 11:22 am

I have to say that the attitude of public servants across the board is getting pretty awful. I have a lot of interaction with many government offices and more and mere they seem to have the attitude that it is an imposition to actually serve the public and do their jobs.

I'd be less frustrated with union demands if their employees had a better work ethic. What makes public employees think it is okay to completely close up for lunch? Who does this outside of the public sector?

The DMV made us wait for over TWO hours for my daughter's driver test the other day. That was WITH an appointment. My husband had to sit through THREE long waits at the DMV to get his driver's license corrected because they kept printing his signature illegibly, making it useless as an identification document (which he needs in his line of work).

Palo Alto employees almost roll their eyes when they talk about the annoying citizens they have to serve. When I submitted plans to the Planning Dept for a simple kitchen remodel (replacing cabinets and appliances, windows and insulation on my 50-year old Eichler, I got attitude from the employee who waited on me about the rich Palo Alto residents doing projects. I'm not rich and it was a simple project with moderately priced materials and no major changes to existing structures. My contractor was appalled at her attitude.

The county is the same. the reason everything costs so much is we are overcompensating these employees with attitude problems.

Posted by 37 year resident
a resident of Old Palo Alto
on Aug 6, 2014 at 3:51 pm

@CrescentParkAnon..what's going on in the city/county/state/country is democrats controlling spending of tax dollars and unions making demands on the cities, counties and state for skyrocketing salaries and benefit/pension plans which are bankrupting the state, no matter what fuzzy numbers Jerry throws at us.

Santa Clara just decided to spend 50K on housing, food and medical for the illegal kids that are being dumped into the U.S. at the southern border because of promises by the democrat in chief.

Posted by local
a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Aug 6, 2014 at 7:03 pm

@ Attitude,
While I'm with you on problems among employees at City Hall, I've actually been rather surprised at how well my experiences with the DMV have gone, given what they have to deal with. I'm not saying you have nothing to complain about, but my own experiences have actually been surprisingly good all things considered.

It's a travesty to close the court here when the closest is now so far away. I wonder if they will keep it open for just the rich people and companies like the DMV did the local office on Showers....

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